The present invention relates to a thin client system, and particularly to a technique of managing application programs (hereinafter, referred to as application software) and data used in a thin client terminal.
A problem in information management in an organization is that information recorded in a computer or a storage medium such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) memory leaks out when the computer or the storage medium is lost or stolen.
As a method of preventing such information leakage, there is system architecture in which the minimum necessary processing is performed on a client terminal used by a user and most kinds of processing are concentratedly performed on a server. In this architecture, information and programs for dealing with the information are placed in a computer (a conventional personal computer (PC), a conventional server, a blade PC, a virtual PC in a server, or the like) within an organization such as a business enterprise, and the minimum necessary information and programs dealing with the minimum necessary information are installed on a thin client terminal. When the user uses the thin client terminal, the thin client terminal is subject to restrictions such as inhibition of data writing to a main body storage medium, restriction on enabling (connecting to) or disabling (disconnecting) an external device, a peripheral device or a storage medium, inhibition of rewriting an execution program, inhibition of activating an unauthorized program, and the like. In a thin client system, such a thin client terminal is used for remote control of a computer (hereinafter, referred to as a remote computer) placed in an organization such as a business enterprise through a network, to perform information processing.
Japanese Un-examined Patent Application, Laid-Open No. 2005-235159 discloses a remote access system in which a storage device equipped with a tamper resistant device having authentication information is connected to a client terminal and the authentication information is used for remote control of a server through a network. This can reduce secret information remaining in the client terminal and improve security.